Nutrition guidelines
Nutrition guidelines
Below are some nutritional guidelines to assist you in getting the most out of your training. It is important that you try these recommendations prior to competition days in order to see how your body reacts. They will need fine tuning to work out your own individual needs.
The body requires six main things in order to function correctly at rest and during training: carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water. These all need to be consumed on a daily basis. If one of these becomes low or deficient, a negative impact occurs on the body and illness or a general feeling of being unwell may result.
Sports drinks
Sports drinks are very popular with most people involved in exercise. However, they are really only of benefit to individuals doing two hours or more training (eg. playing in a tournament, a training weekend etc).
If you choose to use a sports drink choose a one that contains:
- 0.5-0.7g per litre of sodium, and
- 4-7% of glucose or glucose containing carbohydrates, eg. sucrose or maltodextrins.
Good examples of drinks with these percentages can be found in the Leppin range. Powerade, Lucozade and Gatorade also suitable, but are at the highest level of CHO that a sports drink can be at.
If you find yourself in a situation where you are unable to accurately measure the mixing of your sports drink, it is recommend you favour more dilute solutions, especially in warm conditions. High concentrations of carbohydrate (CHO) may lead to gastrointestinal discomfort as well as increase the danger of dehydration.
Water vs sports drinks
Benefits of water |
Benefits of sports drinks |
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Carbohydrate loading
In terms of carbohydrate loading, there are new theories out around this, which are fairly complex. If you are looking for information about CHO loading it would be best to contact a sports nutritionist to gain tailored information to suit you.
Go to Natural Therapy pages to find a registered dietitan in your area.
Pre-competition guidelines
Priorities: To begin exercise in a well hydrated condition with high carbohydrate (CHO) stores.
- Aim to eat approximately 200-300g of CHO two hours prior to competition. If you find that too early to eat prior to a morning event or training session you could try using a liquid meal replacement like Sustagen, or a smoothie and/or sports drink to ensure you are getting enough CHOs.
- This pre-competition meal should be:
- low in fat.
- made up of low-medium GI foods, e.g. wholemeal toast, Special K, muesli bars, yoghurt, bananas.
- low in fibre, therefore avoid apples, kiwifruit, wholegrain breads etc as they’ll make you want to go to the loo.
- Drink at least 300-600ml of fluid (water or electrolyte drink) with the meal, then 150-300ml every 15-20mins up until approximately 45mins to one hour before the event. Again, this will depend on how your bladder can handle fluid!
During competition guidelines
Priorities: Fluid, sodium and CHO replacement.
- It is important that you continually consume fluid as much as is practical and comfortable in an attempt to match sweat losses. Aim to consume 500-1,000ml of fluid per hour. If you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated so don’t rely on your thirst to remind you to drink.
- A sport’s drink containing CHO and sodium can be a good way of ensuring sodium and CHO levels are maintained in a long training session (two hours plus). Adding CHO to a sport’s drink also promotes water absorption in the small intestine, providing the concentration is not too high.
- During training camps or tournaments aim to consume 30-60g of high GI CHO foods per hour. Examples of high GI foods are gummy lollies (jet planes, wine gums, snakes), ripe bananas, low fibre muesli bars, vanilla/super wine biscuits etc.
Apples, oranges, fruit juices etc are not good foods to consume as their CHO content is made up mainly of fructose (fruit sugar), which takes considerably longer to empty from your stomach.
Post-training guidelines
Priorities: CHO and Fluid replacement.
- It is important to eat within 30-45mins of finishing exercise to maximise the replenishment of CHO stores in the muscles.
- Aim to consume:
- 50-75g CHO within 30-45mins after exercise, then,
- 1.2-1.5g CHO per kg of bodyweight per hour for the next few hours, with,
- 1g of protein per 3.5kg of body weight within 30-45mins of exercise.
Examples of good post-training foods:
- Portable option:
Large can creamed rice = 80g CHO and 16g protein - Home option:
One slice white bread, 1/2 can baked beans and a small punnet of yoghurt = 78g CHO, 17g protein. - Protein powders/bars or a recovery powder that contains both CHO and protein are good ways of obtaining both CHOs and protein easily after training, eg. Leppin Recovery.
Fluid guidelines for post-training:
- Consume a minimum of 500mls
- Consume 1.5 x bodyweight loss.
A good way of measuring how much fluid you need to consume is to weigh yourself before training and then dry yourself off and weigh yourself again after training. Work out the difference (1kg = 1,000ml), and multiply that by 1.5. This is the amount you need to consume to replace lost fluids. - Rehydration is best with sports drinks as you get a more rapid recovery than water alone.
Food examples of the main food groups
Protein
- Best sources:
Red meat, fish, dark chicken, eggs - Good sources:
White chicken meat, low fat milk and dairy products, tofu (a complete plant protein), beans and lentils - Alternative sources:
Nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains
Carbohydrates
- High glycemic index (GI) foods:
White/pita bread, potatoes, jasmine rice, normal white rice, sports drinks and gels, kumara, - Medium GI foods:
Pasta, sugar free breakfast cereals, brown/wholemeal breads. - Low to medium GI foods:
Most fruits - Low GI foods:
Brown rice, basmati rice, muesli, most veges
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the following people for input into this page:
- Nadia Assaf
- Davin Taylor